He wasn’t able to speak or move really…Shammi said that the cancer had gotten into his brain although he could still smile when Shammi reminded him of funny things from their past. His (Shammi’s) wife noted approvingly that Fardeen was taking very good care of him and Shammi said: “He SHOULD be taking care of him, he’s his son! No medals for that!” or words to that effect :) Was very funny. But still, I’m sad. He was a man of great style and charisma, in my book.

Loved Feroz. And good for him that he lived his life the way he saw fit and wasn’t hypocritical about it either. There was a great interview that Vir Sanghvi did with him some years back on “Cover Story” which is available for viewing from the rajshri site.

Yay to Shammi by the way–that’s exactly how I feel about parents and children!

Very sad news. As a director, he stretched the boundaries of Bollywood films. He will be missed. Memsaab, below is a interesting article about his most famous film circa 2000.

Qurbani

By Feroz Khan

I have been an actor, director, producer, editor and also at times the storywriter, but I have to say that the director in me takes over all the other departments. As a director one is responsible for putting the whole package together and that I think is a great challenge. I love acting but I have never worked in too many films. As an actor, in the span of forty years, I have worked in a total of just 51 films. Even as a producer-director, I have made just seven films in 30 years. I hate doing double shifts, and must have done a double shift just once in my whole career. I refused a lot of films just because I have always believed in doing quality work and after that living life, king size!

I scripted Qurbani with the help of K.K.Shukla, one of the writers who worked with Manmohan Desai. He worked with me on Qurbani and Jaanbaz. I, basically, had an idea about Qurbani. There are two friends both of whom are guilty of committing crimes. The one who commits the lesser crime is convicted for the bigger crime for which his friend is responsible. He tries to convince the police, saying that he could not have been in two places at the same time. Meanwhile, he thinks that his friend is double-crossing him so that he can hijack his girlfriend. With this basic idea, Qurbani evolved. Zeenat was my first choice for the film and so was Vinod. I have been lucky in getting my first choice for every role. I got Mumtaz for Apradh, Hema Malini for Dharmatma. Similarly, Zeenat was an automatic choice. She was very attractive, and had an instant appeal because of her looks and the way she carried herself. I thought she would fit the role perfectly and she did.

Vinod and I had done Shanks Sbambhu before Qurbani. We were known as the he men of the industry who did their own stunts. Vinod was the expert actor. He started out with negative roles. Then he acted in films like Hera Pheri and Khoon Pasina with Amitabh. In these films he had done positive roles and, hence, his automatic choice. Shakti Kapoor was the villain in Qurbani. Now, Shakti is very short. He is just about five feet seven inches tall while both Vinod and I are six feet tall. When I cast him, people commented that he would not look like a convincing villain if the heroes towered over him. But I knew that only Shakti Kapoor could do the role. I saw a bit of madness in him. Amrish Puri also had a bit role in the film. He was an up and coming actor at the time.

Amjad Khan was a phenomenal showman. In 1975, Sholay was released. Five years down the line, Amjad had worked in all kinds of bad films one could think of. He was almost finished as an actor. This role in Qurbani was probably one of the greatest in his life. It was not a one-dimensional role. It had many facets to it. I knew Amjad had a flair for comedy. Many people asked how I could make this guy a comedian. Even he wasn’t very sure whether he’d be able to deliver. But I knew that he had a sense of humour. But that man killed himself. On the sets, Amjad used to drink fifty cups of tea in a day with one and a half spoonfuls of sugar in each cup. He died because he was overweight. It was the tea and sugar that killed him.

I remember the climax scene in Qurbani. There was a car chase. Both Vinod and I had been caught and put into a car. A crane was supposed to come down and pick up the car. While taking that shot, I had an inverted camera (that is a camera with an inverted eyepiece). We had planned to take a subjective shot, with the claw stopping about ten feet above the camera. Then we would cut that shot with another shot of the crane grabbing the car. So, ultimately, on screen it would have looked as if the car is being picked up by a crane. We had a Hollywood cameraman Mr. Boharran to shoot the film. After one rehearsal when I went to check the shot, die crane, instead of stopping ten feet above, stopped just one and a half feet above the camera. I looked up and saw this big iron claw which must have weighed a couple of tonnes, just above my head. If that wasn’t bad enough in the final take, the claw came down on the camera and smashed it to smithereens. I had to pay twenty-five thousand pounds for a new camera. Fortunately the roll was not damaged and we used the shot in the final film. If the claw hadn’t fallen on the camera the shot couldn’t have looked as realistic as it did. So, we almost had an actual qurbani while making Qurbani. Many people asked me why Vinod’s character was killed. Now, let me explain why. Throughout the film, my character sacrificed because he was caught for something Vinod’s character had done. And then I think that he had conspired against me to take my girlfriend away. In the climax when the villain and his henchmen surrounded us, it had to be either him or me. Which is why I thought that it would make more sense if his character died. So when the villain shot, he jumped to save my life. Qurbani: that’s what friendship is all about.

I felt Vinod Khanna was an idiot to leave the industry when he was at his peak. I was very upset because he had so much going for him. He was the closest friend I had in the industry. Vinod was in awe of Rajneesh. He used to tell me about him. Then he took me to Pune to visit the ashram. He became a mali
(gardener) there. I never really agreed with what he had done but I knew that he wouldn’t listen to anyone.

All the six songs of the film were big hits, whether it was Hum tumhe chaahte hain or Laila O Laila. All the songs except AapJaisa Koi were composed by Kalyanji-Anandji here in Mumbai.

I met Biddu at a party in London. At the same party I met Nazia who was there with her parents. Her parents were very keen that I give her a chance to sing in one of my films. I had already planned to record a song with Biddu in London, so I asked him to audition Nazia. Both Biddu and I liked the nasal quality in her voice. So she was signed.

Qurbani was my first film as a full-fledged editor. I had worked closely with the editor in my earlier film Apradh. Initially, I used to spend a lot of time telling the editor what I wanted and more often than not I didn’t get the desired effect. While making Qurbani I decided to edit on my own. Since then I have been editing all my films. The editor has a very important role in any film but more so if it is an action film. A film has to be edited properly to get the right effect. Now, there always is a conflict between the editor and the director. The director wants to mount his shots, move his shots in a certain way while the editor would want to chop it. When I started editing my films, I used to be conscious of the fact that the scene had to look good after being cut. So as a director-editor I would go straight to the character and do away with the atmosphere, and the furniture.

People feel that all my films are too expensive. I agree that they have all been glossy, high-budget films. Films are basically larger than life so I don’t see why I should shoot a scene like it looks in every day life. Though I started my career in films with a thousand rupees per month, I went on to make films like Qurbani, which was budgeted at 20 crore rupees. I don’t believe in giving a film a realistic look.

Qurbani’s release was delayed by almost three months because we had problems with the censors. The censor authorities in Mumbai gave the film an A’ certificate so I went to Delhi to get them to change the certificate category. If Sholay was given a ‘U’ certificate, I couldn’t understand why my film had to be an adult’s film. In Qurbani, I remember there was this swimming scene on the beach where Zeenat comes out of the water. The censors wanted to cut that, and simply because she was wearing a bikini.

When the film finally hit the big screen, it became a blockbuster. People were dancing to the tunes Laila O Laila and Aap Jaisa Koi. In my entire life, I had never seen such euphoria before.

Agreed this was so much fun reading…. bought back old memories… Qurbani had repeat viewing from audience due to Zeenie baby’s (as she was called then) item numbers. FK was a trend setter for the item number… you will find a trend beginning from Qurbani (Zeenat), Jaanbaz (Rekha/Sridevi) and so on…

He seemed to be part of growing up…. Like when is the new Feroz Khan movie coming out… Saw Qurbani at Apsara in Bombay in ’80…. I remember looking forward to Jaanbaz… it was highly publicized… he had this big ad on one of the one day internationals… He had it all Flair, style and a really cheeky smile showing his bad teeth :). An uncle of mine knew him as a regular visitor to the West End bar in Bangalore in the 70s… Yup another landmark passes… praying for all the rest to have a long healthy life… he will be missed… RIP… FK would have some choice Urdu words to describe his own passing.. :)… Like someone said… he is having a Jashn somewhere…

Well Memsaab, the two Feroze Khan Movies that I need to watch on your recommendation are Char Darvesh and Raju Reporte…I dont’ recall the songs… I might have heard them way back on Doordarshan or Vividh Bharati (Radio)…..

I remember fondly the movies he made.
Indeed they were larger than life.
They were action-packed in a nice way – not just stupid 15 minutes of villain-bashing in the end.
In all this action, he used to manage to weave a plot into his story.

The fact that he made such few movies made each movie a much-awaited event. And he almost never disappointed.

I LOVED Dharmatma. I still remember the beautiful desert scenes though I saw this movie in the mid-70s !
But that was Feroz. Always gave you the best – no compromises !

His movies had lovely music too.

I even liked Yalgaar (1992) very much – and that was a movie that disappeared without a trace.
It was vintage Feroz.

His family was of course there, but he had specifically requested that he be allowed to return to his farm in Bangalore where he kept his dogs and horses, which he also dearly loved and wanted to see one last time. For those of us who are lucky enough to appreciate what animals can and do bring to our lives, our animals ARE part of the family.